


Oh Great, It's Liv

by Rmlohner



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: College, F/F, We were all thinking it right, Young Love, experimenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-09-25 13:06:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17121926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rmlohner/pseuds/Rmlohner
Summary: Aunt May used to be a young college student and scientific prodigy, who found her match in a most unexpected place.





	1. Chapter 1

May Reilly felt ten feet tall as she entered the grounds of Columbia University. Her parents had always told her she could do it, and it felt so amazing to prove them right. She’d been well aware of how she’d passed the point of them understanding anything she was saying in her early teens, but they’d always gamely supported her scientific genius, which she’d forever be thankful for.

There had only been one problem with applying herself so strongly to her studies: her social life had needed to take a backseat. There had been that one wild weekend where she and her friend Mary had become quite, ahem, educated with the brothers Ben and Richard Parker, which if there was a just and loving god her parents would never find out about, but it had needed to stand alone in fulfilling her needs for what had felt like decades.

And so now that she’d actually gone Ivy League, she was eager to make up for lost time. From the moment she arrived, she was casting her gaze around for eligible young men, especially ones with glasses which she always found attractive for some reason. And there were certainly quite a few prospects that met the eye, if she could only land them. She’d always felt awkward actually talking to boys and it had largely been thanks to Mary that she’d gotten on that trip.

It only took a couple minutes for the first class she attended to start bringing her mood down. She’d never quite appreciated before just how far advanced her intellect was, but having to sit through so much stuff about physics she already had down cold while everyone around her lapped it up as completely new information certainly got the message through. She was actually considering walking out, but then another girl moved down from a few rows behind and sat next to her.

“I couldn’t help noticing how bored you looked,” she said. “So I have a feeling you’re in the same boat as me. I was learning this stuff when I was 10.”

That certainly got May’s attention. “I was 12, and I’ll try not to hold that against you.”

The girl giggled, clearly making an effort to not be noticed which just made it funnier. “I’m Olivia. I’ve got a few hours free after this class, how about you?”

May nodded. “Sure. How about we meet at that one big tree in the quad?”

Olivia’s eyes lit up. “I love that one! Such a unique case of a specimen growing in a way all logic says it shouldn’t. I’ve been dying to study it.”

May smiled. It seemed she’d already made a friend, and one who seemed much less socially awkward, which should help a lot. “See you there, Olivia.”

The girl replied, “Well, my friends call me Liv.” And then she hit May with a half-lidded stare that seemed almost…seductive. May shook her head, sure she was imagining it as she turned her focus back to enduring the tedium of the lecture.


	2. Chapter 2

“Well, what do you think?” Liv said. She gestured grandly toward the tree, which May had to agree was very impressive, puffed out until it looked almost like a baobab, with branches that all stretched straight up, twisted around each other like a cephalopod.

“Very nice. It reminds me of a picture I saw of Tolkien’s favorite tree at Oxford.”

Liv grinned. “So you’re a book geek, huh?”

May blushed. “I wouldn’t go that far. There’s just some writers that really speak to me.”

Liv placed a hand tenderly on the tree. “I came here to study robotics. My whole life I figured I should make some kind of breakthrough in the field, but I had no idea what. Then I saw this, nature developing in a way no one could guess, completely on its own. And I knew what I wanted to do.”

May was confused. “Robots…and nature? What’s the connection?”

“It’s an idea that was purely in the realm of science fiction until recently, when some of the best scientific minds in the world started working on it for real. It’s all top secret, of course, but I haven’t found a mainframe yet I can’t hack into.” Liv seemed quite proud of that, enough to make May a bit uneasy. She went on, “So far they haven’t gotten much farther than giving it an official name: soft robotics. And I’m going to beat them to a working prototype. So how about that?”

May’s head was spinning. “Well, confidence is always a good thing when you’re setting your goals.”

Liv laughed and lightly slapped her shoulder. “Just say what you’re thinking: I’m arrogant. I don’t mind, really. Everyone thinks so, and I can’t blame them. But it’s going to happen, nonetheless.”

May smiled. She was liking this girl more and more, give or take the odd criminal tendency. “I’m actually big into mechanics myself. That’s how I got in here.”

Liv’s eyes grew far more interested. “You don’t say. Hey, if it’s not too forward, maybe you could come by my dorm after classes and I’ll show you what I’ve got so far?”

“I’d like that.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May had never had her jaw physically drop from surprise before, but apparently there was a first time for everything. Liv’s dorm room was strewn with mechanical parts, none of whose functions she could begin to guess even with her own genius knowledge of the art.

Before she could say anything, Liv interrupted with, “I know, believe me. My roommate asked to be reassigned, and that was while I was making an effort to keep everything on my side. Well, no point to that now, and if I’m labeled the roommate no one wants, so much the better.”

May was terrified to move, as it seemed any step might crush some important piece of equipment. “And this is going to be a robot, huh?”

Liv chuckled. “Well, not quite that. I’m thinking more like prosthetics. People who lose limbs are stuck with those claws that don’t have anything like the mobility of the real thing, but by merging robotics and organics, what if you could send a brain signal right into the new limb, to do whatever you want?”

May put her hands on her hips. “I’d say arrogant fits pretty well.”

Liv moved back over to her in the doorway, with a light step that could only come from navigating this room for a while. “But you can see it, can’t you? You’re like me.” And if May had sensed some sparks before, there was no mistaking the look in Liv’s eyes right now.

She backed away. “Look, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea, but I think I should make this clear right now: I’m just into guys.”

A look of shock came onto Liv’s face. “Oh god, I came on too strong, didn’t I? Damn it, I’m always doing this!”

She was so distraught that May was driven to put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it doesn’t mean we can’t keep hanging out. You’re a pretty cool person, and you’re the only one here I’ve met so far I can talk to.”

“You mean it?”

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

Later in her life, May would laugh at how naïve she was to think this was as far as it would go.


End file.
